Grim Tales: Crimson Hollow
Grim Tales: Crimson Hollow is the the 11th installment of Grim Tales Series by Elephant Games Story At the detective office, Anna Gray lamented that she had been unsuccessful in finding any information regarding her missing relatives. She was visited by a woman named Rosette Darkwood, the headmistress of the Darkwood Manor School for girls. The woman informed Anna that she wants her investigate the disappearance of Stacy Gray, one of her students who went missing along with many girls before her at the Crimson Hollow, an estate owned by a man named Dorian Black. Rosette told her that she also went to the police but didn't received any help, to which she suspected that Black was bribing them to keep the cases under wrap. Before she left, Rosette asked Anna to keep this request a secret between them. Anna searched for information on the internet to confirm her client's details and found out about the Crimson Hollow's background, Rosette's relation to the group of students in her school called Black Widow, and the disappearances and possible deaths of several young women engaged to Black. After she gathered necessary items, including the skull containing her father's spirit while reminiscing about their past, Anna got in her car and headed to the Crimson Hollow. At the Crimson Hollow, Anna was greeted by Black who sarcastically commented that she wanted to meet him to the point of breaking into the mansion by herself. After greeting her, Black claimed that he would now take her to Stacy. Along the way, Black revealed that his family and the Gray family were once good friends and they shared history together. However, the room that Black claimed Stacy was in turned out to be a trap and Anna was locked inside. With the help of her father's lingering spirit, Anna escaped from the room and found a ghost of one of Black's fiances chained to the door, and released her from confinement. She searched the building and found Stacy in the upper floor of the mansion. At first, the girl refused to believe that Black was going to kill her until they found a letter from one of Stacy's friends, the previous fiance of Black, that she'll be the next one. Knowing the truth, the two searched for a way to escape the mansion but found out the they must beat Dorian in a battle first before they can leave. Using the amulet that Richard gave to Black long ago as a catalyst, Anna traveled into the past version of the mansion and obtained a magic wand. With the wand's power, Anna engaged in a battle with Black who fought back graciously. She emerged the victor, but was immobilized by Stacy's enchanted handcuffs. Stacy then revealed her true reason for coming to the mansion: to kill Black and open the path into deeper area of the mansion for her mistress Rosette. She then stabbed Black in the heart with an enchanted dagger and took his amulet. Before leaving, Stacy told Anna that she admired her bravery and hoped that Rosette will spare the latter's life. After freeing herself from the enchantment with a little help from her father, Anna found out that Black was just a man who was looking for love, but had the unfortunate of that all of his fiances tried to kill him and he was hoping that things would work this time with Stacy. She removed the dagger from Black's chest, allowing the man's wound to heal. Now knowing each other's stories, the three of them joined forces to chase after Stacy and searched for a magical map that allowed them to do so. Along the way, Anna discovered a tape recorder left by Stacy in her room. The recorded tape revealed that Rosette took Stacy under her wing after her mother's death as the girl never knew who her father was, saved for his surname which she's using. In exchange for helping Stacy find out who murdered her mother, the girl was trained in arts of magic and assassination at Rosette's boarding school and became a member of the Black Window, a group of elite students and Rosette's most promising assassins. Crimson Hollow was Stacy's first mission and she was reluctant to participate as she didn't want to kill the innocent people. However, Rosette, who was obsessed with resurrecting her ancestor, had Stacy removed of her free will as with her friends before forcing her to participate in this honey trap scheme. The recording's last word told Anna that the current Stacy was no longer herself anymore, only a toy in hands of Rosette. With the magical map, Anna, Black, and Richard passed through the maze in the mansion and caught up with Stacy, who was now joined by Rosette and her robot assistant Widow. Although surprised at Black's survival, Stacy informed her mistress that she had poisoned the mansion's heart earlier just in case. Pleased with her student's success, Rosette ordered Widow to engage in a battle with Black as the two women fled to the upper areas to continue with the next part of their scheme. Anna managed to restore the heart of the mansion back to normal while releasing another girl's soul from imprisonment, allowing Black to emerge victor, but not before Widow blew herself and the staircase up with a dynamite. As the three waited for the mansion to finish restoring the staircase, Anna and Richard investigate the helicopter used by Rosette to travel to this place. They used one of her belongings to go into the past and discovered that Rosette's family possessed the power to control other people's free will, having used it on four of her students. The two realized that they had arrived into the day the woman had Stacy go through such process. Although Anna and Richard couldn't prevent Stacy from participating in the assassination, they managed to minimize the effect of Rosette's mind control over her, which will allow the girl to return to being herself soon sometime in the future. The two also discovered the rest of Rosette's plans and informed Black, who raised his hands in shock that Rosette had discovered Black's catalyst of immortality: his painting. The three arrived too late at the room where the painting was kept, however, as the woman torched Black's portrait which scarred his face before they escaped through a secret passage with a key, locking the three of them out. After putting out the fire, Anna traveled to the past before the painting was burnt and used it as a basis to restore the painting in the present, rejuvenating Black in the process. She also obtained the key that unlocks the secret passage from the past, allowing them to enter the dungeon. The three were stopped by a group of unrest spirits who blocked their way from going outside. Anna searched for a weapon, and found a mystical sword hidden inside the painting depicting Alicia Black, one of Black's ancestors, battling against the Darkwood Army. The sword allowed them to vanquish the spirits and they finally caught up with Stacy and Rosette in ruins behind the mansion. However, an ancient security system prevented the three from crossing the chasm to the two women, requiring Anna to travel back the the past once more to find the key in order to disable the system. During the search, Anna also discovered that Black's ancestors emerged victors in the battle against Darkwood, but they only managed to destroy her physical body and were left with no choice but to seal her spirit inside the ruins, which was the reason why Rosette targeted them in the first place: she needed to reach the ruins in order to resurrect her ancestor and take revenge against the Blacks for their defeat in the battle of past. With the obtained key, Anna disabled the security system and allowed the three to reach the ruins where Stacy and Rosette were. Rosette revealed that she planned to use Stacy as a sacrifice to resurrect her ancestor all along. However, the woman's plan was foiled when Black teleported Stacy to safety as the girl finally regained her free will from Rosette's mind control. Left with no choice, Rosette stabbed herself with the knife and used her life force to resurrect her ancestor: a half-woman half-spider monster. Anna and Black quickly engaged in the battle against Darkwood with Stacy supporting them with healing magic. With their combined powers, Darkwood stood no chance against them and was vanquished. After the three defeated Darkwood, Stacy thanked Anna for saving her life while Dorian suggested they should now find a better atmosphere for nice conversation, and perhaps, a romantic dinner between him and the brave detective herself. Bonus Game The trio is in the kitchen at Crimson Hollow. Stacy appears and Dorian shows her a ring, saying he is about to propose to Anna when a living puppet appears and captures them, calling Stacy "Rosette's obedient puppet", adding he remembered her, even though she didn't remember him, before trapping her inside the kitchen. Stacy then finds Richard's skull encased in ice, and manages to release him. Richard appears, but their connection is weak, and he asks Stacy to find his black crown, which she does, and then he helps her break free. She manages to track the puppet down to an ancient hall, where he's preparing a ritual, for which he needed both Anna and Dorian. Doing a ritual, Stacy is able to go to Darkwood Manor school from the past where she finds a magical mace. She tries to attack the puppet with it, but fails. Richard appears, saying that the puppet is protected from physical attacks, but is mentally vulnerable, and suggests that Stacy goes to the past and finds a replacement head for the mace. She returns to the puppet room at the Darkwood manor, and finds a mind sphere next to a crippled body with half parts replaced with artificial ones, and recognizes it as the puppet from the present. Richard then reveals that the tortured soul in the puppet is actually her father. Returning to the present, Stacy successfully destroys Rosette's dark magic and frees his soul, along with Anna and Dorian. Dorian then proposes to Anna, and she accepts. The game ends with Anna and Dorian getting married while Stacy takes on the Gray family business with Richard's help. Characters *Anna Gray *Stacy Gray *Dorian Black *Richard Gray *Rosette Darkwood *Darkwood Gallery Crimsonhollow 002.png Crimsonhollow 003.png Crimsonhollow 008.png Crimsonhollow 011.png Crimsonhollow 010.png Crimsonhollow 013.png Trivia *This is the first game in the series to show Richard's true appearance. From this game onwards, he isn't bald, has both eyes, doesn't have scarred face, only having black magic marks on his forehead. *The game's plot was inspired by 2015 American Gothic romance horror film, Crimson Peak and Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. *This is the first game Anna is seen as a young woman again after the incident in The Heir. *Richard once states that Stacy is only half-Gray but the real meaning is still unknown. *There are certain spelling errors in this game: Luisa was called Louise in a cutscene and Rosette was called Rosetta in task list. Those are probably a developer's oversight. Category:Grim Tales Category:Elephant Games Category:Games Released in 2016